Tag Archives: Brains

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Science & Health

A Neurologist’s Secret Weapon for Keeping Your Memory Sharp as You Age: Novels | Inc.com

Reading fiction doesn’t just boost emotional intelligence, concentration, and critical thinking. It also helps prevent memory loss.

By Jessica Stillman, May 1, 2023

Photo: Getty Images

If you’re a busy entrepreneur, sitting down with a novel might seem like nothing more than a light and enjoyable way to unwind. But science suggests fiction offers our brains a lot more than just distraction and stress relief. Research suggests that deep, concentrated reading–the kind we do when we sink deeply into a great novel–builds key mental skills like focus and empathy as well as the ability to sift through complicated information and analyze conflicting arguments.

Reading doesn’t just fill our brains with images and ideas. It actually rewires how we think about them. All of which adds up to a good argument for why you may want to join super-achievers like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Jeff Bezos and make more time for fiction in your schedule. But if you’re still struggling to make time for literature, perhaps Richard Restak, a neurologist and the author of 20 books on the brain, can convince you. Restak insists novels have one more undersung brain benefit–they also help keep our memories sharp as we age.

Source: A Neurologist’s Secret Weapon for Keeping Your Memory Sharp as You Age: Novels | Inc.com

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health

Hitting the Books: AI is making people think faster, not smarter | Engadget

There is too much internet and our attempts to keep up with the breakneck pace of, well, everything these days — it is breaking our brains.

By Andrew Tarantola | @terrortola | March 5, 2023 10:30 AM

wenjin chen via Getty Images

Parsing through the deluge of inundating information hoisted up by algorithmic systems built to maximize engagement has trained us as slavering Pavlovian dogs to rely on snap judgements and gut feelings in our decision-making and opinion formation rather than deliberation and introspection.

Which is fine when you’re deciding between Italian and Indian for dinner or are waffling on a new paint color for the hallway, but not when we’re out here basing existential life choices on friggin’ vibes.

In his latest book, I, HUMAN: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, professor of business psychology and Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic explores the myriad ways that AI systems now govern our daily lives and interactions.

From finding love to finding gainful employment to finding out the score of yesterday’s game, AI has streamlined the information gathering process. But, as Chamorro-Premuzic argues in the excerpt below, that information revolution is actively changing our behavior, and not always for the better.

Source: Hitting the Books: AI is making people think faster, not smarter | Engadget

Games, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Pleasures, Science & Health

Brain development: The myth the brain “matures” when you’re 25 | Slate

A powerful idea about human development stormed pop culture and changed how we see one another. It’s mostly bunk.

By Jane C. Hu, November 27, 20227:00 PM

Illustrations by Rey Velasquez Sagcal

When Leonardo DiCaprio’s relationship with model/actress Camila Morrone ended three months after she celebrated her 25th birthday, the lifestyle site YourTango turned to neuroscience.

DiCaprio has a well-documented history of dating women under 25. (His current flame, who is 27, is a rare exception.) “Given that DiCaprio’s cut-off point is exactly around the time that neuroscientists say our brains are finished developing, there is certainly a case to be made that a desire to date younger partners comes from a desire to have control,” the article said. It quotes a couples therapist, who says that at 25, people’s “brains are fully formed and that presents a more elevated and conscious level of connection”—the type of connection, YourTango suggests, that DiCaprio wants to avoid.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Brain development: The myth the brain “matures” when you’re 25.

Science & Health

Why We Forget Things, According to Neuroscience | Time

By Corinne Purtill, April 28, 2022 7:00 AM EDT

Studies on the brains of zebrafish, like the one shown here, are helping scientists better understand memory, and the power of forgetting.
Illustration by TIME (Source image: Zhuowei Du)

A baby zebrafish is just half the size of a pea. A recent look inside its transparent brain, however, offers clues to the far bigger mystery of how we remember—and how we forget.

In an experiment that yielded insights into memory and the brain, a team of researchers at the University of Southern California taught the tiny creature to associate a bright light with a flash of heat, a temperature change the fish responded to by trying to swim away.

Using a custom-designed microscope, the team then captured images of the animals’ brains in the moments before and after they learned to associate the light and the heat. It’s the first known look at how a living vertebrate’s brain restructures itself as the animal forms a memory.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Why We Forget Things, According to Neuroscience | Time